The present invention relates in general to delivery of utility usage related information to customers, and in particular to a system and method for delivery of utility usage information that is helpful to the customer in managing their utility usage.
Utilities traditionally collect commodity usage data once during each billing period, which is usually either monthly or bimonthly for electricity, natural gas, and water. This is done typically by sending persons to the customer location to read a utility meter in a process known as “meter read.” For most customers, this data is limited to a single figure for total consumption. For others, the data includes different values for peak and off-peak usage during the billing period, also limited to a single figure for total consumption at the relevant price (for example, peak) during the billing period.
More recently, advanced metering systems make it possible to obtain daily or more detailed usage data for customers, where the meters are capable of sending their readings to the metering system headend using radio or other remote communications and without the need for manually reading the meters. In addition to the utility reading provided by the meter read process, advanced metering systems also are programmable to provide more frequent periodic usage data for customers, such as hourly readings of the utility meters. These readings can be set to be taken at any time of the day or night.
In billing customers, utilities have provided the billing period totals with bills, whether printed or electronic. Many utilities often also provide a twelve-month history of the monthly consumption or a comparison of the past month's usage with usage in the same month of the prior year.
More detailed usage information is presented on many utility websites. U.S. Pat. No. 7,043,459 describes such a system. However, the detailed usage is not synchronized with or linked to the periodic utility bill. It is therefore desirable to provide a link between the detailed usage data and the bill associated with the usage that is useful to customers, such as by providing such information on or with customer utility bills.
The link between utility usage and climate change has been recognized by the public. This has led to a general awareness that every person on the planet should reduce the carbon emission footprint imposed by him or her. It is thus desirable to provide consumers a link between the individualized usage data with quantities of carbon emissions caused by individualized usage of electricity or natural gas. In this way consumers can understand the direct connection between their energy usage behavior and climate change.